Solbakken defends tactics

Ståle Solbakken was forced to defend his tactics after Wolverhampton Wanderers faltered against Bolton.

In a nine minutes spell during the first half Wolves first fell behind when Benik Afobe opened the scoring for Bolton, but two quick-fire goals from Kevin Doyle first put Wolves back level and then into the lead, all before half an hour had been played.

But instead of pushing home the advantage, Wolves sat back, barely had an effort on goal throughout the second half and with ten minutes remaining it was back to the walls defending a slender one goal lead.

Predictably we failed to hold on, with Mark Davies the man to rub salt in the wounds after the former Wolves trainee scored the equaliser in the final minute.

"There was no plan to sit deep - we were pressurised in the last 20 minutes and that`s why tried to change things," Solbakken told the Express & Star while trying to justify why we ended the match without either Doyle or Ebanks-Blake who had been playing up front.

Solbakken then went on to blame poor possession for the second half performance.

He continued: "We could and should have done better when we led so late in the game. We never really got into it in the second half."

"After the interval we lost the ball a lot going forward, and when we should have gone forwards, we passed backwards and when we should have gone back we passed it to no-one, So we struggled with the rhythm in the second half and that put us under pressure."

Vital Wolves Comment: Managerial naivety or the players to blame?

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up against a good side no doubt, but this jekyll and hyde aspect of the side is puzzling. even more worrying when all we have to call on is Stearman to bolster the defence late on ... That said, great to see Doyle getting a couple, he's hit the post enough this season, great player, he will do us proud. We are Wolves

up against a good side no doubt, but this jekyll and hyde aspect of the side is puzzling. even more worrying when all we have to call on is Stearman to bolster the defence late on ... That said, great to see Doyle getting a couple, he's hit the post enough this season, great player, he will do us proud. We are Wolves

For me this is a side to our game that we have never been very good at. Defending a lead when the opposition has momentum and has pushed a couple of guys up from defence/midfield to bolster their attack is very difficult. What it requires is patience, an assured touch, teamwork and most importantly, the ability to make correct footballing decisions. Retention of the ball is key. Stale knows this and probably the team knows this. Doing it is a different thing altogther though.
Still that said, i'd have taken a draw if you'd offered it to me at the start of the game - UTW!!

For me this is a side to our game that we have never been very good at. Defending a lead when the opposition has momentum and has pushed a couple of guys up from defence/midfield to bolster their attack is very difficult. What it requires is patience, an assured touch, teamwork and most importantly, the ability to make correct footballing decisions. Retention of the ball is key. Stale knows this and probably the team knows this. Doing it is a different thing altogther though.
Still that said, i'd have taken a draw if you'd offered it to me at the start of the game - UTW!!

I still say poor finishing is the difference between us being top and where we are now , even going back to the game against Leeds Pescko should have had two second half , hopefully Doyle is finally realising the ball goes between them two white things and is a sign of things to come because 7/8 goals between 2 strikers in 12 games aint the best return is it lads , smash em saturday lads :-)

I still say poor finishing is the difference between us being top and where we are now , even going back to the game against Leeds Pescko should have had two second half , hopefully Doyle is finally realising the ball goes between them two white things and is a sign of things to come because 7/8 goals between 2 strikers in 12 games aint the best return is it lads , smash em saturday lads :-)

I fully support SS but I am still disappointed that he chose to take off those players who could have scored a third goal, which would have given us a cushion ... and by their threat kept the opposition in their own half. To take them off and to retreat to our penalty area is to concede the midfield and to allow the opposition numerous shots on goal. In my notes I recorded lots of saves by Ikeme and plenty of tackles and interceptions by Johnson and Berra. Inevitably, one of the shots got through. SS has stated that we kept losing possession and that we had to tighten up at the back. That's an indictment on our midfield and front runners. Players must run into space and players with the ball must look for them. If we did this, we would keep possession, frustrate the opposition and exploit the gaps that opened up in their defence. It's so much better than allowing them the run of the pitch.

I fully support SS but I am still disappointed that he chose to take off those players who could have scored a third goal, which would have given us a cushion ... and by their threat kept the opposition in their own half. To take them off and to retreat to our penalty area is to concede the midfield and to allow the opposition numerous shots on goal. In my notes I recorded lots of saves by Ikeme and plenty of tackles and interceptions by Johnson and Berra. Inevitably, one of the shots got through. SS has stated that we kept losing possession and that we had to tighten up at the back. That's an indictment on our midfield and front runners. Players must run into space and players with the ball must look for them. If we did this, we would keep possession, frustrate the opposition and exploit the gaps that opened up in their defence. It's so much better than allowing them the run of the pitch.

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